Author: Chris Lee

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Chris Lee

Advice to students, new and old

Last week I offered some remarks at the matriculation ceremony for Thomas Aquinas College in California. Since I would give the same advice to any Catholic students reentering the school year, I thought I would share my thoughts here.

A few months before I was named bishop, I gave another lecture at Thomas Aquinas College. I was asked to deliver a talk that I thought was going to be a little too heavy. It was late at night, I had flown in from Chicago and driven up the California highway, and I thought, “Oh, this talk is going to bomb.”

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Chris Lee

Statue of Mary being restored

MADISON — With construction almost completed at Holy Name Heights — formerly Holy Name Seminary and the Bishop O’Connor Catholic Pastoral Center in Madison — there are many new and exciting changes that have taken place throughout the building over the past two years.

One thing that remains the same though is the statue of Mary that resides in the south courtyard of the building.

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Chris Lee

Reflecting on the value of work

Labor Day is a public holiday which honors the American labor movement and contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country. It also offers us opportunities to reflect upon the value of work.

Through Baptism and Confirmation, our daily lives are consecrated, through the indwelling Spirit, to proclaim, reveal, and witness to God’s Kingdom through our prayers, Eucharist, charity, and our daily work.

Be proud of work

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.'”

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Chris Lee

Ben-Hur: a tale of Christ, a tale of grace

Lew Wallace’s 19th century novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, inspired two silent movies in the early decades of the 20th century and the magnificent 1959 film starring Charlton Heston in the lead role.

Almost everyone agrees that Heston was born to play the part, and who can forget the drama and excitement of the chariot race with which the movie comes to its climax?

Roma Downey and Mark Burnett have produced a new instantiation of the story, a streamlined version of the 1959 film. Like its predecessor, this one features a charismatic actor (Jack Huston) as Ben-Hur, plenty of visual grandeur, and yes, a stunning chariot race, depicted this time with the most up to date camera technology and CGI virtuosity.

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Chris Lee

Thanks for coverage of Holy Name Heights and seminary

To the editor:

Just finished reading the August 25 copy of the Catholic Herald. Nice job! Super coverage of timely issues: back to school info/choices, refugee insights, lots of outreach info.

Most of all, thank you for Holy Name Heights coverage. Our son was a freshman at Holy Name Seminary High School during its last year open. Memories of the turmoil and sadness of that year still linger in the hearts of many.

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Chris Lee

Running for their lives

Imagine, right now at this very moment you and your loved ones need to run for your lives!

With hardly more than the clothes on your backs, you and your family must flee from an invading armed force.

Or imagine your quick exodus is due to the fact that gang members have threatened to kill your family because your teenage son or grandson has refused to join their murderous drug gang.

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Chris Lee

Catholic Charities, Bethel Lutheran join forces to aid homeless

MADISON — Bethel Lutheran Church and Catholic Charities Madison have announced a new partnership to support the homeless through a joint operation of the Winter Day Resource Center, expanding services from two days to five, at 312 Wisconsin Ave., in downtown Madison.

The Church Council at Bethel Lutheran Church, with the Board of Directors at Catholic Charities, voted in favor of operating the Winter Day Resource Center as partners, which will allow expansion from the current Tuesday and Thursday, to Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Nov. 1 through March 31, 2017.

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Chris Lee

World Youth Day 2016: Source of hope

When I arrived in Kraków for the 2016 World Youth Day, I was pretty exhausted, having left Los Angeles some 15 hours earlier and having had to change planes in Munich.

But I was enthused as I approached my first appointment right in the heart of the Old City. Through the good ministrations of George Weigel, the world’s leading expert on John Paul II, I was one of a group of bishops and priests invited to spend time with the original youth group of Fr. Karol Wojtyła.

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Chris Lee

Support for an elderly parent living alone

Q My siblings and I are working together to help my father who is in his 80s and living in the family home.

We have decided to do as much as we can to help him live out his years in the home he loves. The issue is that we are now four months into this and we are having some major disagreements about what it means to support him.

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